Great white sharks may have contributed to pushing the super shark Megalodon to extinction

Nearly 19 meters long and weighing an estimated 100 tons, the megalodon was one of the most ferocious animals that ever swam in the ocean between 23 and 3.6 million years ago. So powerful, but why did they go extinct?

A new study suggests that the disappearance of this super shark may have something to do with great white sharks. Although 3 times smaller than the megalodon, this shark is thought to have competed for food, thereby pushing the megalodon to extinction.

Previous studies have hypothesized several theories around megalodon extinction, with diet and competition for food often thought to be key factors.

In a new study, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the Goethe-University Frankfurt looked at whether great white sharks may have played a role in the megalodon’s extinction.

The team analyzed stable zinc isotope ratios in the teeth of 20 living species, as well as 13 fossil species, including megalodon.

This method allows scientists to investigate an animal’s nutrition, including the diversity in its food chain.

Their analysis shows that when great white sharks and megalodon coexisted during the early Pliocene period (5.3 to 3.6 million years ago), the two animals’ food webs also overlapped. .

This means that the two species are likely to compete for the same food source.

The study notes that this was not the identified reason that led to the megalodon’s extinction, with the researchers saying that “a combination of factors” may have influenced the shark’s extinction. such as climate change and the depletion of food resources. However, the great white shark cannot be ruled out as the subject of the food source depletion factor.

How the great white may have prevailed over the megalodon in hunting will require a new direction of future research, but it is possible that the much smaller body size gave the great white shark its agility. nimble to overcome megalodon.

Reference: Mail